The first winner of the new DTM season is Kelvin van der Linde: The South African’s team won the ABT Snow Challenge on Tuesday in Gurgl (Tyrol, Austria) – a fun race with electric tracked vehicles in which this year’s ABT GT3 drivers Kelvin van der Linde (South Africa), Ricardo Feller (Switzerland), Marco Mapelli (Italy) and Jordan Pepper (South Africa) competed against each other on a specially prepared race track on snow and ice together with media representatives and partners of ABT Sportsline.
Team van der Linde prevailed against Team Pepper in a thrilling final. The fight for third place was so close that the winner could not be recognised with the naked eye and the Feller and Mapelli teams were both classified third. “That was great fun,” said Kelvin van der Linde after his team’s victory. “Unfortunately, no points are awarded for this in DTM. But it’s always good to start a new season with a success. I hope this is a good omen.”
The Snow Challenge at an altitude of 2,600 metres on the Festkogel mountain was the conclusion of a major kick-off event for the start of the 2024 GT3 season. The ABT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 for the Nürburgring 24 Hours in the spectacular new Red Bull design was unveiled on Monday in front of hundreds of fans as part of the ABT Racing Party at the Gurgl Carat congress and event centre, which was presented by Daniel Abt. The highlight of the evening was an ABT x CUPRA Tribe Party with DJ and producer BENNETT, who thrilled the visitors with his number 1 hit ‘Vois sur ton chemin’, among others.
The event also included the ‘ABT Gipfeltreffen’ – a business event for around 100 guests from the media, business and sport. The two ski stars Dave Ryding and Linus Straßer came to Gurgl directly from the finale of the Ski World Cup. Both will be guests of ABT Sportsline at this year’s DTM and will be driven around the racetrack by Markus Winkelhock in the Schaeffler DTM Innovation Taxi.
For selected media representatives, the summit meeting started on Monday morning with a visit to ABT Sportsline in Kempten. They then travelled to Gurgl in a rally with the CUPRA Official Cars from the DTM.
“A year ago, a small group of journalists went skiing in Gurgl with Dave Ryding, Ricardo Feller and Kelvin van der Linde,” says ABT Sportsmarketing Director Harry Unflath. “Twelve months later, this has turned into a huge event. It was two fantastic days in Gurgl, for which I would like to thank all the partners and those involved behind the scenes, as well as the Scheiber family and the colleagues from the Ötztal on behalf of ABT Sportsline. Our drivers and guests have experienced a lot and will take great impressions home with them.”
“The huge turnout at the ABT Racing Party even exceeded our own expectations,” says Dominic Kuen, Destination Manager Gurgl at Ötztal Tourismus. “The number of guests who watched the public programme in front of the Gurgl Carat on Monday was impressive. The atmosphere at the summit meeting was also really good. During the Snow Challenge on Tuesday, Gurgl showed its best side with bright sunshine, blue skies and powder snow. Everyone had a lot of fun with the Bobslas. These vehicles are amazing. Thanks to everyone who made this event possible. We are already looking forward to the new DTM season and many more joint activities with ABT Sportsline.”
Published by: ABT Sportsline
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